{"id":327,"date":"2009-10-15T14:28:36","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T21:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/?p=327"},"modified":"2010-01-18T22:29:49","modified_gmt":"2010-01-19T05:29:49","slug":"sophia-the-gnostic-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/?p=327","title":{"rendered":"Sophia: the Gnostic Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just read John Nash’s article,\u00c2\u00a0“Sophia: the Gnostic Heritage<\/a>“, published in the Fall 2009 edition<\/a> of The\u00c2\u00a0Esoteric Quarterly. Nice thorough-but-brief coverage of the topic, if you know what I mean. \u00c2\u00a0Here’s an excerpt…<\/p>\n

\"Sophia\"Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article presents a brief history of<\/p>\n

Sophia, best known of the divine feminine<\/p>\n

individualities of the West. Under her Hebrew<\/p>\n

name, Chokmah<\/em>, Sophia emerged in late biblical<\/p>\n

times. But it was the Gnostics of the early<\/p>\n

Christian era who created the Sophia we recognize<\/p>\n

today. Sophia played a small but significant<\/p>\n

role in western mainstream Christianity<\/p>\n

and a much larger role in Eastern Orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

Russian Orthodox theologians not only<\/p>\n

had personal experiences of Sophia but also<\/p>\n

shared important insights into how she related<\/p>\n

to the Trinity and to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153invisible Church\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

that transcends historical Christianity. The<\/p>\n

article concludes with some remarks about the<\/p>\n

relevance of Sophia in modern spirituality.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

masculine God dominates Judaism,<\/p>\n

Christianity and Islam. But female deities<\/p>\n

were popular in many ancient cultures, and<\/p>\n

they survive in the religions of Asia and the<\/p>\n

Pacific, and in the indigenous religions of the<\/p>\n

Americas. A popular theory is that the Great<\/p>\n

Mother once ruled supreme in much of the<\/p>\n

world but was overthrown when Indo-<\/p>\n

European tribes invaded the Middle East in the<\/p>\n

third millennium BCE. Allegedly the invaders<\/p>\n

brought with them a masculine warrior god, or<\/p>\n

several warrior gods, who eventually evolved<\/p>\n

into the Deity of the Abrahamic religions.1<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether or not there was once a supreme<\/p>\n

feminine deity\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand the issue continues to be<\/p>\n

debated\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthere is no doubt that feminine deities<\/p>\n

were more common in the West in antiquity<\/p>\n

than they became during the 2,000 years<\/p>\n

of the Common Era. In recent decades resistance<\/p>\n

has increased not only among feminist<\/p>\n

theologians but also more generally to the convention<\/p>\n

that God is necessarily masculine and<\/p>\n

must be referred to in terms such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Father,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lord,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and so forth. Resistance has<\/p>\n

also increased to the custom of envisioning<\/p>\n

God in any kind of anthropomorphic terms.2<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet anthropomorphism is comforting to many<\/p>\n

people, and the concept of a powerful Goddess,<\/p>\n

complementing or even replacing the<\/p>\n

traditional masculine God, resonates with large<\/p>\n

numbers of thinking people.<\/p>\n

Of all the anthropomorphized, feminine deities<\/p>\n

discussed today, Sophia is the most popular in<\/p>\n

the West, to judge by the literature of feminist<\/p>\n

theology, women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s studies, and New Age culture.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this article, then, is to<\/p>\n

present a brief review of the history and contemporary<\/p>\n

relevance of Sophia in western<\/p>\n

spirituality. Many questions remain concerning<\/p>\n

how Sophia can be reconciled with traditional<\/p>\n

Christian doctrine. However, opportunities<\/p>\n

also exist to integrate Sophia more firmly<\/p>\n

into the Trans-Himalayan teachings.<\/p>\n

Sophia in Biblical Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

he Greek word for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wisdom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is Sophia.<\/em><\/p>\n

But the story of Sophia extends back into<\/p>\n

biblical Judaism, where she was known by the<\/p>\n

Hebrew name Chokmah<\/em>. Chokmah had a long<\/p>\n

history in the Old Testament, starting out simply<\/p>\n

as the quality or virtue of wisdom and<\/p>\n

gradually approaching the status of a divine<\/p>\n

individuality. She had a close relationship<\/p>\n

with the masculine Yahweh, even participating<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

John F. Nash, Ph.D., is a long-time esoteric student,<\/p>\n

author and teacher. Two of his books, Quest for the<\/em><\/p>\n

Soul <\/em>and The Soul and Its Destiny<\/em>, were reviewed<\/p>\n

in the Winter 2005 issue of the Esoteric Quarterly<\/em>,<\/p>\n

and his latest book, Christianity: the One, the<\/em><\/p>\n

Many<\/em>, in the Fall 2008 issue. See the advertisements<\/p>\n

on page 14 of this issue and also the website:<\/p>\n

www.uriel.com.<\/p>\n

\n

Read the rest of “Sophia: the Gnostic Heritage<\/a>” by John Nash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just read John Nash’s article,\u00c2\u00a0“Sophia: the Gnostic Heritage“, published in the Fall 2009 edition of The\u00c2\u00a0Esoteric Quarterly. Nice thorough-but-brief coverage of the topic, if you know what I mean. \u00c2\u00a0Here’s an excerpt… Summary This article presents a brief history of Sophia, best known of the divine feminine individualities of the West. Under her Hebrew name, … Continue reading Sophia: the Gnostic Heritage<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gnosticism","category-sacred-feminine","category-what-sunday-school-wont-teach"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t